This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

Who's in charge of AY at the ESDC? A team, but there's no point person (any more); FOIL request regarding mystery volunteer still pending

Who's in charge of the Atlantic Yards project at the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC)?

Is there an in-house project manager, a point person, similar in function to the way, for example, Regina Myer serves as president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation? Is there a board with oversight responsibilities and a process for seeking local input?

Nope. For a while, though, depending on whom you talk to, the ESDC had a volunteer in charge.

ESDC response

I asked the "who's in charge" question to the ESDC, and got the following response from spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell:

The Atlantic Yards project, like most of the projects large and small here at ESDC, does not have a specific project manager.

The project utilizes a team of professionals in our legal, planning, environmental, and design & construction groups to monitor various aspects of the project as appropriate. In addition, we’ve contracted with various independent contractors to act as owner’s representatives and environmental monitors working on our behalf.

As major project construction is set to begin shortly, this structure might take on some changes, but has been sufficient thus far to monitor site activities.

While the structure may be sufficient to "monitor site activities," that describes only part of the ESDC's role, which includes negotiating contracts at "arm's length."

The result of the relative vacuum? Developer Forest City Ratner gains an advantage.

The argument for a governance structure

Meanwhile, critics like the BrooklynSpeaks coalition and several legislators support a governance structure that would involve a local development corporation, subsidiary or public benefit corporation that also incorporates a formal advisory board made up of local representatives.

Why? As BrooklynSpeaks argues:

in June 2009, ESDC made crucial determinations about the environmental impact of the project without having the new arena proposal, but merely relied on the developer's assertion that future changes would comply with the previous project's design guidelines. The [Modified General Project Plan] further allows the developer to control the project build out schedule without any remedies for delays beyond the proposed 2019 end date. ESDC's abrogation of these basic oversight responsibilities is unacceptable for a project that is receiving exceptional direct and indirect subsidies, zoning overrides, and has won the ability to acquire property through the State's power of eminent domain.

Looking more closely

Let's go to the ESDC page listing subsidiaries and major development projects. Each of the ESDC's subsidiaries has a president and a board, who offer a greater potential accountability:

The only project that is somewhat comparable is the Columbia Manhattanville Project, which has been less exclusively an ESDC project because, unlike Atlantic Yards, it went through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP)

Belmont Park was just a study; the City-by-City Projects are clearly much smaller than AY; Midtown Rising has a project leader from the city of Rochester; and Radisson Community has a development office and a community association.

Hudson Yards Development Corporation

One potential parallel involves the another railyards project, albeit a much larger one:

Established by the City of New York in 2005, the Hudson Yards Development Corporation (HYDC) spearheads the implementation of the City’s Hudson Yards development program. HYDC has an experienced staff comprised of planning, development and construction professionals.

The HYDC Board is comprised of 13 directors, all of whom serve on an ex officio basis. The City's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding serves as Board Chairperson. Also on the board the City Councilmember for District 3, the Manhattan Borough President, and the Chair, Manhattan Community Board 4.

There's a staff of seven.

Who's the ESDC team?

Based on my observation at ESDC meetings and public events, the lead person for the ESDC is Senior Counsel Steve Matlin, who's made presentations at ESDC board meetings and at the community information session held last July.

Joining him at the session was Rachel Shatz, Director of Planning and Environmental Review, who has signed affidavits in court cases.

Also playing a role are the three ESDC officials who testified--or, at least, were present--at the state Senate oversight hearing on eminent domain held last month by state Senator Bill Perkins. General Counsel Anita Laremont did the majority of the talking, joined by Executive VP of Strategy, Policy & Public Affairs Darren Bloch.

Why is that question important? Well, as I wrote 6/2/09, there was evidence that suggested lawyer Susan Rahm, a volunteer, was running the show.

I had questioned whether Rahm was in a policy-making position, and was told by the ESDC that no, she was just a consultant.

Another person intersecting with Atlantic Yards disagreed. "When I was introduced to Susan Rahm, she was called the 'project manager' for Atlantic Yards," my correspondent told me. "Yeah, it’s a pretty general term, but I got the impression she was the chief operating official for the project, salary or no."

No response to a FOIL request

On 4/20/09, I filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the ESDC, asking in part:

Specifically I request records that explain 1) how Susan Rahm's role and responsibility was introduced to ESDC colleagues when she joined ESDC as a volunteer in 2007 and 2) direct contacts by Rahm and/or Darren Bloch from 2007-present with Forest City Ratner executives regarding such issues as the timing, financing, legal status and scope of the Atlantic Yards project.

If that latter request is too broad, please narrow it to communications, including those regarding the State Funding Agreement signed in September 2007, between June 2007 and January 2008.

Every month, I get a response from the ESDC's FOIL officer, telling me they're still working on my request. It's been nearly ten months now.

Questions asked and not

At the 5/29/09 oversight hearing, I called Rahm (below) the "most ignored mystery woman," suggesting that someday some oversight committee will ask what she does on the Atlantic Yards project. (Photo by Jonathan Barkey)

At the 7/30/09 public hearing on Atlantic Yards, Fort Greene resident Audrey Doyle raised a question that most likely had been planted by others in the opposition: “Who is Susan Rahm, what is her position in ESDC, and what is her connection with the Atlantic Yards project?… We really wonder what it is that she does.”

That question never got an answer, though Rahm later last year left her consultant's role.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

Click on graphic to enlarge. This is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change, and the project is already well behind that tentative timetable.